Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Nebula
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
We are a 5-person band, so our experiences are varied. Collectively, almost all of us agree on the relevance that the boom of the music video on TV (mainly MTV) had for our generations. We could listen to and watch the musicians and bands that later inspired us to make music at any time, just as we could discover new music and encounter musical proposals that were now expanding and creating an entire aesthetic universe. Having witnessed that heavily influenced our approach to music.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
We are from the city of Santa Fe, Argentina, where the roots of rock are not a popular or massive thing. In that context, our passion for creating music was a product of being mesmerized by the image of the rockstar from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s and trying to imitate them. We all agree on having found one or more friends with whom we shared that taste and started playing at imitating our musical idols, without having the slightest idea of how things were done because information was scarce and the internet didn’t exist. In that sense, the passion for making music was a mysterious ritual where every small discovery about how to recreate sounds and write a song brought us closer to something we believed, and in part still believe, to be unattainable, superior to ourselves.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
Nebula arose from our singer, Walter Casco’s, desire to start playing original songs after a long time spent in cover bands. We have gone through different line-ups and are currently auditioning new drummers. But Nebula originated from Walter’s initial search, which was initially oriented towards Post Punk, but which gradually broadened musically with the contributions of the other musicians who are or were part of the band.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
We believe that what best tends to define us is alternative rock. Under that umbrella, we are always experimenting, and sometimes we lean towards sounds more typical of hard rock or post-punk, to more gothic or dark wave sounds, and we constantly find ourselves oscillating between alternative sub-genres. But without a doubt, we can say that Nebula’s search is always for the dark, dramatic, and dense sounds that have run through various genres from the ’80s to the present day.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
Learning to record our music, as a compositional or production stage, definitively changed the way we make music. Having the ability to listen to ourselves and work thoroughly to create the sound in our heads is something that opened up many sonic possibilities for us.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
We believe in recording, even as a demoing process, as a central tool, as we mentioned earlier, in addition to full band rehearsal. Nowadays, we compose thinking about two possible schemes: in one, two guitars are sounding all the time; in the other, we seek to replace one of the guitars with a keyboard. The experimentation and the essence of each song is what ultimately defines whether we use two guitars or one guitar and keyboards.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
We want to mention two excellent bands from the city of Santa Fe, from the ’90s and 2000s: La Cruda and Carneviva.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
In the immediate future, we could say that many times the lyrics of some of Nebula’s songs have to do with personal experiences that are sublimated and turned into songs under allegorical figures or fusions with fantastical elements. These types of situations can be observed in ‘Fantasma’ or ‘Oscura, where real-life situations are narrated with fantastic elements. This can also happen with sensations or feelings that somehow end up becoming a song.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
We don’t have this very clearly defined. For us, music is a form of expressing messages or emotions that perhaps even we ourselves don’t fully understand or have clear. Most of the time, it’s something that ‘just happens.’ Based on that, we believe that the importance or the message that each listener receives from our music can be different; there can be as many messages as there are listeners, and that is the beauty of music.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
Perseverance. It is not easy to make music in our contexts, for many reasons. But somehow, it is inevitable for all of us and, at the same time, a great object of desire. Fighting against various aspects of daily life and the environment to make our music is simultaneously a quest, a reward, and a great lesson for all of us.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
We grew up watching our idols give marvelous performances at Wacken, Hellfest, Rock in Rio, or Rock am Ring. If we are permitted to dream without restrictions, those are some of the first names that come to mind.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
We think we would be decent opening acts for bands like Ghost, HIM, or Muse, to name a few whose artistic pursuits influence and identify with us.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/nebula.santafe. You can listen to our music on https://open.spotify.com/intl-es/artist/2MwOHHLwFmOc7Oq1cUO0Xv?si=NQW-UPAEQUqvBHTREHcJxA.
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
We are currently working on new recordings of original songs. We want to show more of Nebula to the world and will be looking to play on more regional or national stages during the next year, as so far we have only performed in our city of origin.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
We hope you can listen to our music, and we would be honored to be one of those unexpected discoveries. To those who listen to us for the first time, we hope to see you at a live show where you will find a Nebula that is even more powerful than what you heard recorded.
